Molecular hydrogen, H2, has been examined as a possible alternative fuel source. Unfortunately, molecular hydrogen also has numerous drawbacks that have prevented its wide scale use as a fuel. One such disadvantage is the gaseous state of molecular hydrogen. Hydrogen gas is exceptionally difficult to store and transport. The prior art is replete with attempts to design simple, inexpensive hydrogen storage devices to address this need. These attempts include U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,606 to Hunter (Hydrogen Storage System); U.S. Pat. No. 6,074,453 to Anderson (Ultrafine Hydrogen Storage Powders); U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,052 to Kiyokawa (Hydrogen Storage Material); U.S. Pat. No. 6,672,077 to Bradley (Hydrogen Storage in Nanostructure with Physisorption); U.S. Pat. No. 5,906,792 to Schulz (Nanocrystaline Composite for Hydrogen Storage); U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,951 to Rodriguez (Storage of Hydrogen in Layered Nanostructures); and the like. The disclosure of each of these patents is hereby incorporated by reference into this specification.
Attempts have been made to provide hydrogen storage devices comprised of carbon nanotubes. By way of illustration, U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,951 of Rodriguez et al. describes a hydrogen storage device comprised of carbon nanotubes (see, e.g., claim 26).
The hydrogen storage efficiency carbon nanotubes is not that great, generally being less than about 15 grams of hydrogen per liter of storage volume. It is an object of this invention, in one embodiment thereof, to provide a storage assembly with a storage capability substantially greater than about 15 grams of hydrogen per liter of storage volume.